ANZ and Westpac refund millions to credit card holders

Alex Ritchie

Feb 8, 2018( 2 min read )

Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced that ANZ and Westpac will give a combined $21 million back to credit card customers, following concerns about their lending practices.

ANZ Business One business credit card refunds

ANZ will refund $10.2 million to 52,135 business credit card accounts, after it “failed to properly disclose” the following for the Business One business credit card:

Applicable interest rates

The interest-free period

The annual fee

When an overseas transaction fee might apply

The amount payable for overseas transactions with foreign merchants or financial institutions.

These eligible customers have been contacted by ANZ and will receive a refund with interest.

Westpac refunding customers encouraged to increase credit card limits

Westpac is to refund $11.3 million to around 3,400 credit card customers, following ASIC enquiries into its credit card limit increase practices. This includes around $3 million back to customers for fees and interest, and waiving $8.3 million in credit card balances.

The crackdown follows a 2014 review by ASIC focusing on credit card providers’ invitations to customers to increase credit card limits. As a result of increasing these credit card limits, Westpac customers were found to be now experiencing “financial difficulty”.

Since this review, the Government has introduced reforms into Parliament to prohibit credit card providers sending card limit increase invitations, “regardless of whether the consumer has provided their consent”.

History repeating itself?

Only two months ago ASIC announced that Westpac was to refund $11 million back to 13,000 owner-occupier home loan customers.

Further, in 2017 the big four banks (ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac,) as well as AMP, were requested to pay almost $220 million to customers in refunds and interest.

At the time, ASIC Acting Chair Peter Kell stated that “all banks should be reviewing their systems to ensure that they minimise the chance of any such errors occurring, and that any risks to customers are identified early.

“If past errors are identified, remediation needs to be timely, transparent and effective,” said Mr Kell.

Hopefully banking customers will see a change in these systems and practices in 2018.

This is an information service. By browsing on the website and/or using our search tools, you are asking RateCity to provide you with information about products from multiple financial institutions. We will try to show you a range of products in response to your request for information. The search results do not include all providers and may not compare all features relevant to you, for further details refer to our FSCG. We are not a credit provider, and in giving you product information we are not making any suggestion or recommendation to you about a particular credit product. If you decide to apply for a product, you will deal directly with a financial institution, and not with RateCity. Rates and product information should be confirmed with the relevant financial institution, and you should review the PDS before you decide to purchase. See our terms of use for further details. This advice is general and has not taken into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Consider whether this advice is right for you.